Choosing the Right Recruiting Model for Your Stage

There is no one right answer. There is a right answer for right now.

The recruiting model that works for a 15-person startup is different from what works at 50, which is different again at 150. Companies that get this right evolve their approach as they grow. Companies that get it wrong either overspend on recruiting infrastructure they do not need yet, or underinvest until the talent gap becomes a crisis.

Here is a practical guide to choosing the right model at each stage.

Stage 1: Seed to 15 employees

At this stage, you are making 3 to 5 hires per year. Every hire is a significant percentage of the company. Most roles are filled through the founders' networks and personal outreach.

What usually happens: The CEO and co-founders handle all recruiting themselves. They lean heavily on referrals and personal networks.

What actually works: The founder-led approach can work at this stage because hiring volume is low and the founders' networks are the best source of early hires. But even here, there are moments when outside help pays off: a critical engineering hire that nobody in your network can fill, or a stretch where you need to make three hires simultaneously and the CEO's bandwidth is maxed out.

Best model: Founder-led with occasional project-based recruiting help for hard-to-fill roles.

Stage 2: 15 to 50 employees (post-Seed or Series A)

This is where most startups first feel the pain. You are hiring 8 to 15 people per year. The founder's network is getting tapped out. Roles are becoming more specialized. The CEO is spending 20+ hours per week on recruiting and falling behind on everything else.

What usually happens: The CEO keeps trying to do it themselves, or they engage a traditional recruiting agency for the most urgent roles. Neither approach works well at this volume.

What actually works: This is the sweet spot for embedded or fractional recruiting. You need someone dedicated to your hiring, but you do not have enough volume or budget to justify a full-time internal recruiter. An embedded partner gives you the depth of an in-house hire with the flexibility to scale.

Best model: Embedded or fractional recruiter, typically at 3 to 5 days per week, on a month-to-month basis.

Stage 3: 50 to 150 employees (Series A to B)

Hiring volume is now 15 to 30+ per year. You probably have multiple departments that all need to grow simultaneously. The complexity of managing multiple hiring pipelines has outgrown what a single person can handle.

What usually happens: Some companies hire their first internal recruiter at this stage. Others try to manage with an embedded partner. The right answer depends on the consistency of your hiring needs.

What actually works: If your hiring volume is consistent and predictable, a full-time internal recruiter (or two) starts to make financial sense. The cost per hire drops as volume increases, and an internal recruiter builds the institutional knowledge and processes that will scale with you.

However, many companies at this stage find that a hybrid approach works best: an internal recruiting lead who owns the function and process, supplemented by an embedded partner who handles overflow, specialized roles, or surge hiring periods.

Best model: Internal recruiter for core hiring, plus an embedded partner for specialized or high-volume periods.

Stage 4: 150+ employees (Series B and beyond)

At this point, you need a real talent acquisition function. Multiple recruiters, a TA lead, dedicated sourcing, employer branding, and operational infrastructure (ATS, analytics, etc.).

What usually happens: Companies build an internal talent team. They may still use agencies or embedded partners for executive searches or hard-to-fill specialties.

What actually works: The internal team handles the majority of hiring. External partners are used surgically for executive searches, niche roles, or new markets where the internal team does not have relationships. The key at this stage is having the internal infrastructure to support high-volume hiring without quality dropping.

Best model: Internal talent team with selective external support for specialized needs.

How to evaluate if your current model is working

Regardless of which model you are using, these metrics tell you if it is working:

Time-to-fill. Are you filling roles in a reasonable timeframe? For most roles, 21 to 45 days is the target. If you are consistently over 60 days, your model is not working.

Quality of hire. Are new hires performing well at 6 and 12 months? If you have a pattern of early-stage attrition or underperformance, your evaluation process needs work, regardless of who is running it.

Founder time spent. If the CEO is still spending significant time on recruiting after bringing in help, something is off with the delegation or the partner's ability to operate independently.

Candidate experience. Are candidates having a positive experience, even when they are not selected? This affects your employer brand and your ability to attract talent long-term.

Transitioning between models

The transition between models is where things often get messy. Switching from founder-led to an embedded partner, or from embedded to internal, requires a deliberate handoff:

Document what is working. Before transitioning, capture the sourcing channels, interview processes, and candidate insights that have been effective. This institutional knowledge is valuable and easily lost.

Overlap, do not hard-switch. When moving from one model to another, run them in parallel for a period. If you are bringing on an internal recruiter, keep the embedded partner engaged during the ramp period to maintain pipeline momentum.

Set clear expectations for the new model. Every transition is a chance to raise the bar. Define what success looks like for the new approach and measure it from the start.

The bottom line

Your recruiting model should match your stage, your budget, and your hiring velocity. There is no shame in needing help, and there is no prize for building internal infrastructure before you need it. The companies that hire best are pragmatic: they use the model that works right now and evolve it as they grow.